@Hotznplotzn I can totally understand the point of view of left-leaning people - in a world where fascism literally rose back from the ashes and is threatening the whole free world from the inside, a law like this seems just... odd?!?
However, keep in mind the fact that here in Eastern Europe communism caught a totalitarian shape, with regimes in Soviet puppet states systematically breaking human rights and suppressing political opposition. Protests were not allowed, freedom of expression was not guaranteed, and the political elite of the former regime was systematically destroyed.
Even after the Iron Curtain fell, former members of the communist apparatus managed to maintain power, one way or another, and sometimes even their Moscow links. The only way we truly managed to beat them were at the polls, and even there, barely, aided by the big cities and the diaspora in the West.
Here in Romania for example, FSN, and later PSD, successfully managed to take over the entire territorial network of the former communist party. So it was an easy win for them for over 30 years.
If such a law was passed in my country, I don't think it would have any effect on the unions, as they do not use any communist insignia or whatnot. I think it is rather a way of bonding a permanent rapture with the past, by not allowing bad faith actors to make an apology of totalitarianism.
/my 2c
@cows_are_underrated
I've heard this multiple times. In reality, communism became an enabler for authoritarian regimes. And especially in Eastern Europe and in the Soviet Union, it became as authoritarian as it could be.
Maybe the law could have been written in a way to allow "forms of communism that are not authoritarian" or something along the lines, but you don't know how it could have ended up in practice. Maybe it would just provide some loopholes, maybe it could lead to the wrong people being prosecuted etc.
And people have been in contact for too long with the authoritarian form of communism to be able to figure any other form. For them, is the same as saying, "y'know, there are also some good fascists out there. Some kind racists, some great neo-Nazis etc".